TERT and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: Intriguingly, overall, as many as 37% of familial IPF and 25% of sporadic IPF cases have shorter telomeres, whereas as many as 24% of familial IPF and 23% of sporadic IPF cases without TERT or TERC mutations also have significantly short telomeres, suggesting the existence of other gene mutations in IPF (25, 26).